Individualising virtual labs and loop/moodle assignments

When developing online material and virtualised labs which students work through remotely and in their own time the issue of sharing answers amongst students often arises. At the same time having students discuss problems and how to tackle them amongst themselves is an important aspect of learning. Within this SATLE project we wanted to develop and support a framework of creating variations of specific problems and virtual experiments to allow students to work with each other to discuss the concepts, yet have all students working on their own dataset/questions so copying answers will not suffice. In a way we wanted to reproduce tried and tested methods of experimental physics labs, where students are welcomed to talk to each other on how to do things, yet as all works on heir own instruments results, noise levels, samples etc. differ significantly enough for each to have “their” report.

While moodle/loop does have a certain amount of flexibility in some question types within i.e. quizzes such as randomised questions and randomisation of variables within numerical questions those functions are too limiting when trying to work with more complex problems or even fully virtualised labs as those developed by the Free University Berlin (link to: https://tetfolio.fu-berlin.de/web/980458)

For this project we therefore developed a framework which can take a given moodle/loop question and create multiple versions of it by not only replacing numerical values but also any text parts, images, embedded webpage, or linked datasets freely. The frameworks was then expanded to even create multiple versions of entire virtual experiments or create individualized datasets to begin with.

The framework developed within this project combines the functions of our moodle based teaching platform (loop) with a dedicated webserver to hosts the student individualised datasets, images etc. as well as a python based converter to create the required “individualised copies” of the original question. The framework and required python scripts are documented and accessible to all DCU staff: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d0Q10Keq-ycVC4U8f2yqOEtJ9FbbpPfjxTKnq4dp8Zo

There is also a “how to” video demonstrating the use of the framework: https://youtu.be/a_Xmf4QMOrw.

The framework has been extensively used in the content development for various modules within the physics degree in DCU. Uses range from formative loop quizzes in standard lecture modules, computational “experiments” where student are faced with automatically generated content for lab based task but also lecture activities, up to fully individualised virtual experiments which replaced physical lab experiments for some students. 

From a technical perspective we have learned a lot about the inherent limitations of the moodle/loop teaching platform when it comes to individualisation of material. Our solution required hosting of the individualised datasets, images, and virtual experiments on a separate website.

The impact of having the framework in place though has been seen very positively by staff as well as students. The initial tests have all been run within new material and modules making a formal, comparative evaluation impossible. The concept though in itself is seen as successful as the new material is well received by students, engagement is high and for activities were the student individualisation is used for on-campus lab we observe exactly the type of student peer interaction we wanted to encourage. Students actively discuss how to tackle the tasks and discuss why and how their outcomes differ for their individualised problems. 

The documentation of the framework also allowed lecturers not involved in the development of the framework to successfully operate it themselves for their modules with only very limited additional help required.

The development team will welcome anyone to try it out and contact us for questions/assistance.